10 Cane Rum

While it has become downright cliché for a pirate to drink rum (they drank other stuff too, y’know), I do have an affinity for the stuff. I’d like to ruminate a bit about the first rum that made me really think about the drink, 10 Cane.

A bottle of 10 Cane. Note that the liquid is only a light tan, not brown.

The first thing that caught my eye was the name: 10 Cane, or as it is written on the label, 10CANE. Yup, I checked it out because it looked like ‘Iocane,’ as in ‘Iocane Powder.’ I’m almost certain that this connection wasn’t intended, but then again my friends all thought of it before I said it, so maybe.

What you smell is called 10 Cane Rum. It's much tastier than Iocane powder.

At any rate, 10 Cane is actually named after sugar cane, and according to the website it takes ten stalks of sugar cane to make one bottle. 10 Cane is made only with sugar, not molasses like brown rum.

10 Cane is clear, with a hint of golden tan. It contains no additional flavors, which is something I love. I have this whole thing about clear rum versus brown or dark rums – it has been my experience that clear rum burns cleaner and doesn’t leave a nasty hangover. Coincidentally, 10 Cane burns very clean – I’ve never had a hangover as a result of it, despite having had about ¾ of a liter over the course of an evening. This is not to say it’s not strong, because it is. It’s 40 proof (80% alcohol, for you new drinkers), and smells and tastes of it, though it is smooth. This is absolutely not a rum for people who don’t like the taste of rum.

I’m not a fan of spiced rum – as I just said, this isn’t a rum for people who don’t like the taste of rum, but the inverse is also true: this IS a rum for people who DO like the taste of rum. I can’t drink it straight, but it makes a nice grog (I use a 1:4 rum/water ratio, with a little lime and/or sugar). I also like it mixed with cola, especially Vanilla Coke or Dr. Pepper. When mixed with Mountain Dew Voltage, it’s very sweet and caffeinated and blue. My friend calls it ‘Romulan ale’ on account of how it look like, well, Romulan ale.

Romulan Ale is blue, in case that wasn't clear from the context. It's very blue.

Captain’s log, supplemental: I’ve discovered that there is such a thing as Romulan ale, which is sold at some Star Trek place. I’m not sure why I didn’t think someone had made it.

10 Cane was the first rum I’d tried that didn’t have spices or flavoring in it, and I fell in love with it. I haven’t found another rum yet that doesn’t have something else in it – not that I don’t enjoy the occasional belt of Captain Morgan or Sailor Jerry, mind you, but I like my rum to taste like, well, rum! And that’s what a bottle of 10 Cane really is – it’s a bottle of rum, and only rum.